America….land of the free.  Home of the brave.

 

It would be very easy to make a laundry list of America’s shortcomings; in every aspect of our daily lives, we encounter problems that affect us adversely.  And everywhere we turn, we are reminded of the sad and sorry state that our country is in; the constant barrage of news from the media tells us just how rotten things have become.

 

We are told about rising crime statistics, and crooked politicians, and the jobless and the homeless and the spread of disease, and of schools who can’t manage to teach the rudimentary elements of education.  And of course, we want something done.  We want our streets to be safe.  We don’t want to wake up in the morning and find that our children have been kidnapped out of their own beds.  We certainly don’t want to find the bodies our daughters and grandsons washed up on a rocky shore miles from home.

 

We want to believe that our vote stands for something.  We want to trust our elected officials, and we are tired of learning that the people we entrust our vote to can run a tight campaign but can’t manage to control their baser instincts.

 

We are tired of seeing people with signs saying “Will work for food” when they are within walking distance of a McDonald’s with a “Help Wanted” sign on the door.  We are tired of subsidizing single women who bear child after child, staying home to raise their children courtesy of government assistance programs, while two-parent families need two incomes in order to make ends meet and have to send their babies to overpriced, inadequate daycare facilities.

 

We are tired of having to decide whether our child is really sick enough to need to go to the doctor because we can’t afford to take the time off of work to take them and the co-pay for the visit just increased again. We are tired of sticker shock when we go to the counter to pay for prescriptions; sometimes the cost of two prescriptions can equal the entire month’s grocery budget.

 

We are tired of the decline in education and of schools who graduate students who cannot read or write a simple paragraph.  We are tired of cash-poor school districts with top-heavy administrations.

 

We are tired.  Plain and simple.

 

So what is to be done?  How are any of these problems solved?  Many people would devise elaborate taxpayer-funded plans and programs that would (on paper, at least) make life better for everyone. 

 

But I don’t believe that there are any solutions that can be implemented via legislation.  Creating laws that solve our problems for us only succeeds in narrowing the freedom that is the most basic to us as individuals– the freedom to think for ourselves and to make decisions for ourselves. 

 

How, then, do we turn America around?  How do we create the type of environment in which everyone truly has equal opportunity…and see that none among us lack basic food and shelter?

 

I believe that no change can be accomplished unless it comes from within each and every one of us.  The kind of change that needs to take place can’t be imposed upon us in the form of vouchers or mandates.  We ourselves need to change – and that could be asking the impossible.

 

It could be easy, if people were somehow endowed with the ability to experience life through the eyes (and emotions) of others.  To see what it feels like to go hungry…to live in a substandard housing project…to be the target of ethnic and racial intolerance.  Unfortunately, empathy is in scarce supply.  And even those who do see with more than just their eyes can feel overwhelmed by the enormity of what faces our country.  It all seems like too much.  Where do we start?  Besides, what difference would just one person make?

 

The answer to that is that one person can make a lot of difference.  The actions of just one person can change the lives of countless others.

 

The problems we face are real, and the solutions that are needed must be met head-on.  Throwing money at them, creating committees and discussion groups and endless numbers of meaningless administrative positions designed to figure out how solve the problems only serve as temporary stop-gaps and in reality, do nothing but give the illusion of taking action.

 

True solutions lie in true change.  It’s not the circumstances that need to change; it’s us…how we think and feel and finally, how we respond to the problems we see around us on a daily basis. 

 

The concept illustrated by the adage “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” is one which we would all be wise to incorporate into our lives.

 

We each need to make a commitment to do what we can to make life better for those around us – our families, our co-workers, our community. By taking on the responsibility to take care of our own problems rather than look to some government entity to rescue us, we become stronger.  We develop the traits that America was built on – self-reliance, ingenuity, independence, critical thinking, and perseverance.  The alternative is to become a nation filled with apathy and indifference; filled with people who automatically look to be bailed out and given hand-outs when times are tough, because they have forgotten how to help themselves.  No wonder they can’t fathom the concept of helping others.

 

That’s the challenge that I leave with you - to consciously choose to change your own corner of America. By doing so, we will each contribute a small piece to the big picture.  And in the end, we come closer to becoming the America that lives in every waving flag – the land of the free, and the home of the brave.